Looking for an engaging, colorful, life science program for your elementary school aged child? How about a free one? Check out Classic Science from Scott McQuerry’s The Lab of Mr. Q.

This 36 week program is written in a style that will certainly engage children. There are lots of little jokes and zany photos with comic book style captions, and the tone is informal and down-to-earth.

The curriculum is designed to be taught 3 days a week. The first day is spent reading an interesting passage about a topic and completing an associated worksheet, which could include a crossword puzzle or matching definitions, etc. The remaining two days are spent on activities and experiments. There are a number of science fair type projects scheduled for the year. In fact, your child would complete about 10 of them, which would certainly lead to a lot of exposure to and comfort with the scientific method.

This program is labeled for ages 6-9, but given the types of exercises and worksheets, not to mention all the science fair type projects and the inclusion of some simple percents and averages, I think it would most comfortably fit grades 3-4 or so, for the average student. Younger students would certainly enjoy many parts of the program, especially the entertaining and visually pleasing readings, but my guess is that they might not understand all of it.

I actually prefer doing science from an integrated approach such as that in BFSU, rather than only studying one type of science for an entire year, but this curriculum is particularly well done. It would actually complement many of the BFSU lessons rather well, and could be used to generate interest and provide reinforcement of those lessons, as well as providing practice in the scientific method.

There is currently no charge for the downloads, which consist of a student text/workbook and teacher’s guides for 36 weeks. Voluntary donations are excepted via Paypal, however, and given the obvious effort that has gone into this program (the production values are amazing!), a donation seems very appropriate if you do use and enjoy the materials!